The Beautiful Trade (1) Exchange

THE BEAUTIFUL TRADE (1) EXCHANGE

BOTTOM LINE: JESUS IS NOT ASKING TO BE AN ADDITION TO YOUR LIFE; HE IS ASKING TO BE YOUR LIFE.

INTRODUCTION Have you ever had to do research for a class paper? Sometimes you start out with your topic thinking that you know exactly what you are going to write about. But then, after you start reading some books and digging into the research, you realize that you actually know WONDER. very little about the topic and have to start from scratch and just DISCOVERY. learn. You have to trade what you think you know for what you don’t. PASSION. And it’s the same when it comes to following Jesus. Sometimes we WWW.WHATISORANGE.ORG/ have to trade what we think we know—about Jesus, about what XP3STUDENTS is best for us, about what we think about others—in order to fully participate with God in what we don’t know. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jared Herd

XP3 STUDENTS TEAM Tim Walker Sarah Anderson Jaime Handley

CONTRIBUTORS Mark Brown Laura Whelan

CREATIVE COORDINATOR Steve Underwood

GRAPHICS/VIDEO Nathan Boyd

USER AGREEMENT ORANGE SPECIALISTS The reThink Group, Inc. gladly grants permission to churches, schools Kristie McCollister and other licensees to tailor XP3TM materials to fit their unique leadership Jeremy Zach requirements, locale and format preferences. However, if you wish to edit the content substantively, including teaching scripts, small group dialog and any TECHNICAL & WEB SUPPORT other content in which biblical principles and concepts are presented, you Hadley Brandt are obligated to do so within the doctrinal guidelines we’ve expressed in our Alex VanRossum Statement of Faith (see page 2). CHIEF EXECUTIVE These resources are intended to be downloaded and printed for use by the OFFICER subscribing entity only and may not be electronically transferred to or duplicated Reggie Joiner by other non-subscribing entities. Any unauthorized reproduction of this material or incorporation into a new work—including podcasts or video of this content—is CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER a direct violation of U.S. copyright laws. ©2011 The reThink Group, Inc. All rights Reggie Goodin reserved. XP3 and the XP3 logo are trademarks of The reThink Group, Inc. www.whatisorange.org/xp3students ©2011 The reThink Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved STATEMENT OF FAITH

ABOUT GOD God is the one and only true God, yet He exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God is the Creator, so everything belongs to Him and is under His control. God is holy, so He is righteous, majestic and loving. God is all knowing and purposeful, so He’s at work to bring about His will. No person, thing or idea compares to God.

ABOUT THE SCRIPTURES God reveals Himself to us through the Bible, and it is 100% accurate, reliable and authoritative.

ABOUT PEOPLE People are made in God’s image and for His pleasure. But everybody falls short of God’s intention, or ideal, for people. In other words, everyone has sinned. As a result, we are all separated from Him, even though He wants an intimate relationship with each of us.

ABOUT SALVATION That’s why Jesus, God’s Son, came and lived on this earth, died and rose again. God offers His free gift of salvation to all who believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior, the only way to be forgiven and reconciled to God. Anyone who accepts this gift is adopted as a son or daughter into God’s family and will live with Him forever in heaven.

Scripture marked “NIV” is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. www.whatisorange.org/xp3students ©2011 The reThink Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved CREATING THE ENVIRONMENT

We believe that the set, stage, music and everything in your room communicates a message—without you saying a word. That’s why we put together a list of production ideas to help you set the stage for the session and the series. From the music you play when students come in the room to the worship set your band plays, we want to make sure that your room conveys “The Beautiful Trade” in a multi-sensory way. There is a downloadable checklist available in your series downloads that will give you all the elements for this session (and the entire series).

BACKGROUND PLAYLIST FOR THE BEAUTIFUL TRADE SERIES “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot (from The Beautiful Letdown) “Light Up the Sky” by The Afters (from Light Up the Sky) “Love Is Here” by Tenth Avenue North (from Over and Underneath) “Say (All I Need)” by OneRepublic (from Dreaming Out Loud) “Magnificent” by U2 (from No Line on the Horizon) “End of the World” by Blake Lewis (from Audio Day Dream) “True Love” by Phil Wickham (from Cannons) “Born Again” by Newsboys (from Born Again) “Control” by Mute Math (from Mute Math) “Your Love” by Brandon Heath (from Leaving Eden) “Take You Back” by Jeremy Camp (from Restored) “Two Princes” by Spin Doctors (from Pocket Full of Kryptonite)

WORSHIP PLAYLIST FOR THE BEAUTIFUL TRADE SESSION 1 “No One Like You” by David Crowder (from Illuminate) “Glorious One” by Fee (from We Shine) “Come To Me” by Aaron Shust (from Whispered and Shouted) “All I Can Do Is Surrender” by Mark Roach (from Every Reason Why)

THE SET As the backdrop to your stage/set, arrange three doors with frames so they are freestanding. You can keep this very minimalistic and create a “door” using PVC pipe and curtains, or you could find actual doors from a building supply or salvage shop. Using either construction paper or store-bought, precut letters, post the words exchange, swap and switch on each of the three doors. Then, either on a poster or with precut letters, write the phrase “What are you willing to . . . ?” across the top of all three doors.

SERIES ART Art for PowerPoint backgrounds and for series promotional ads is available as a free download with every series. Visit the XP3 website, log on to your account and download the images to use in your presentation, newsletters and website.

VIDEO A video bumper is available for The Beautiful Trade series and was created to be used as an intro for all three sessions of The Beautiful Trade series. You can purchase the video by logging into your XP3 account and clicking on the “XP3 videos” link.

The following activities and illustrations will help middle school students connect with the subject matter in ways that engage them physically, mentally, socially and sometimes emotionally. You can also adapt The Beautiful Trade series for middle school students by using the teaching outline found in this document to edit the teaching script to a 20-minute presentation. In addition, by using the separate middle school small group dialog questions (found in the series downloads) that are geared specifically for 6th-8th graders, you can make each section more middle school friendly.

SESSION 1 GAME: BUZZWORDS (Play this game as an icebreaker to Session 1.) When we hear certain words or phrases, they make us think of particular items, people or places. In this game, students will try to get their partner across the floor the fastest by trying to get them to guess the “buzzword.” Have your students pair off with each partner standing on opposite ends of the room, so that you have a row of students on one side of the room and a row on the other side. The rows should be facing each other with about 10 feet between them. Choose one row of students to be the askers and the other to be the answerers. The askers will each be given a piece of paper containing a list of words. [Note to communicator: Make sure that each paper has different words so that students don’t “cheat” by listening to other pairs. The more students you have, the more sheets you will have to make up.]

When you tell students to begin, the askers will try to get the answerers to guess the words on the paper by using buzzwords, or words that are associated with the word on the paper, but they MAY NOT say the word on the paper. If they do say the word, their partner must take a step back. When the answerer gets the word right, they get to take a step towards their partner. [Note to communicator: If you have volunteers available, have a volunteer stand behind each asker to make sure they aren’t saying the word on the paper.] The first pair to get their answerer across to their teammate wins! As a fun prize, you can award Mad Libs or crossword puzzle books to the winning team.

SESSION 1 ILLUSTRATION: THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Use this illustration after the last paragraph of teaching point “D” in the Truth section of the teaching script.) So often when we think of the kingdom of God, we think of heaven and angels, or we think of Mother Teresa helping orphans in Calcutta. [Note to communicator: Here are some examples of images of “The Kingdom of God” but feel free to go online and do a search using key words like kingdom and heaven to find alternate images.] http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=kingdom+of+God&oe=UTF- 8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1061&bih=731 http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=Mother+Teresa&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF- 8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1061&bih=731

But what does the kingdom of God look like in your life? What does the kingdom of God look like in the life of a normal middle school student in your neighborhood or at your school? Maybe it looks more like this:

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[Note to communicator: Here are some websites we found that have images of young people serving others. You can also do a Google Images search for helping, volunteering and community. Or you could use images of people from your church or youth group serving in your community or around the world.] http://www.soroptimistsnr.org/pages/projects/violetRichardson.html http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/media-center/photo-galleries/costa-rica.aspx

The kingdom of God is not just about some heavenly realm that will be someday, but it’s also about us here in this world now, living in submission to God. This can look different for each of us depending upon what God is asking of us. For Mother Teresa, her kingdom-of-God life meant living in India and taking care of forgotten people. For you, living a kingdom-of-God life may mean simply asking God what He wants of you and listening. Maybe He wants you to treat your siblings better. Maybe He wants you to be more involved in your community or your family life. Maybe He simply wants you to ask Him what He wants from you. Whatever it may be, a kingdom-of-God life is focused on the relationship between you and God and how that affects your relationships with the other people in your life.

The teaching script is divided into five sections.

INTRODUCTION This introduction is intended to connect you, the communicator, to the audience usually through a personal story or observation. We’ve included our stories, but you may want to substitute your own story in this section.

TENSION The tension moves the message from the “me” mentality of the introduction to a “we” mentality. For example, a transition statement might be, “At some point in our lives, we have all been jealous of someone over something.”

TRUTH Once the tension builds, the next logical step is to uncover the truth of what the Bible says about the topic.

APPLICATION At this point, the message moves to a “you” mentality in order to teach the application. The “you” is the student. Take God’s truth and unpack how it relates to each student so that he or she can apply it to everyday life.

LANDING Here it is important to land the message on what each student needs to know and do with what they’ve heard. Just as the message began with a personal story or observation, the message also ends with a “me” mentality. For example, one possible landing statement might be, “I have a greater sense of purpose knowing that God created me in His image.” Leave the students with a clear sense of what all of you should do with what you’ve heard. Unless otherwise noted, the landing will always set up the small group dialog and give students an opportunity to process and internalize what they’ve heard.

The XP3 Students Team wants you to take our work and make it work within the context of your current student ministry. We encourage you to tailor an XP3 Students Teaching Script so that it directly speaks to your current church context, allows for the master teacher’s personality to shine in and through the message and parallels the personal world and community of your students.

HOW TO DETERMINE THE LANDSCAPE OF YOUR YOUTH GROUP • Who are the student clusters in your ministry? Typically a student cluster is a homogeneous group of 5-10 students who act, behave, talk and dress the same. Understand what they love to do, eat, listen to and watch. What type of student clusters gather at your church ( athletes, artistic types, Emo, etc.)? How many different student clusters come to your church? What student clusters will you initially target when you teach?

• Identify your youth ministry distinctive. What makes your youth group different? What does your youth group tend to focus on? What does your youth group do well? What traditions are a part of your youth group ( baptism, communion, weekly dinner)? What makes your youth group remarkable? What does your youth group offer?

HOW CAN EVERY XP3 STUDENTS BOTTOM LINE CONNECT WITH THE MISSION, UNIQUENESS AND VALUES OF YOUR STUDENT MINISTRY?

HOW TO FIND YOUR OWN VOICE: THE MASTER TEACHER’S STYLE 1. Embrace your uniqueness. God made you. Be yourself! Don’t try to pretend to be Andy Stanley or Reggie Joiner or Jared Herd when you teach. Your students need you to be you. 2. Know your strengths and weaknesses as a speaker. Have a few of your adult volunteers give you constructive feedback on your delivery. 3. Tell your own stories. Rely on your experience in order to personalize the message. Allow your students to get to know you through your storytelling. 4. Pray and be confident. Thankfully God gave us His Holy Spirit to empower all ministers of the gospel. God doesn’t leave His communicators alone on stage.

HOW TO SPEAK TO THE STUDENTS’ REAL NEEDS: THE STUDENTS’ SOCIAL SCENE 1. Define the top issues that are transpiring in your student ministry. a) Think through the five social areas students live in: family, school, church, friends and extracurricular activities (sports, theater, clubs, band, etc.). b) Observe, talk to and survey students. They will tell you their needs. c) Feel free to cruise social media in order to gain an understanding of their world. 2. Directly speak to students’ needs by adapting the Application and Landing sections of the teaching script. It may be more productive to deal contextually with your students’ needs rather than sticking to the script verbatim. Granted, your students will deal with application in small group, but it is helpful to at least speak to their real needs from the stage. Speaking generally about their issues helps them process faster when asked in small group. 3. Highlight top issues in the Tension section of the teaching script. It can be helpful to add to the tension by using current issues your youth ministry is experiencing.

BOTTOM LINE: JESUS IS NOT ASKING TO BE AN ADDITION TO YOUR LIFE; HE IS ASKING TO BE YOUR LIFE.

INTRODUCTION Maybe you’ve been somewhere and listened to something only to feel like what you are hearing is in a foreign language—even if it isn’t.

If you have ever been in this position you know how stressful and frustrating it can be.

TENSION Do you ever feel that way when you read the Bible?

Mark tells the story of God reaching down to humanity—the story of a different kind of leader and a different kind of teacher.

TRUTH Jesus’ first appearance in Mark isn’t in a stable or manger like you might imagine based on the other Gospels and their interpretation of the Christmas story. No, in Mark, Jesus is an adult who comes to hear His cousin, John the Baptist, preach and to be baptized by him.

“The time has come,” he [Jesus] said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:15-17 NIV).

When Jesus said the kingdom of God was near, He was saying that God was going to make things right.

Jesus was calling images to mind that were celebrated in the Old Testament—images that encouraged a world, a planet, a state of living and being where God was in charge, where God ruled, where God was King.

The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; He sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake (Psalm 99:1 NIV).

The next thing Jesus says as the book of Mark begins is this: “Repent.”

When Jesus said to repent, He meant for people to stop, to make a 180-degree change in the way they were living in order to embrace a new way of living—a way of living that was represented in the phrase “kingdom of God.”

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17 NIV).

This verse, in fact, is less about what Jesus is calling the disciples to, being fishers of men, and more about what Jesus is calling them from: their livelihoods, their comfort, their way of being. Jesus offers them something different.

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APPLICATION What does it look like to believe the kingdom of God is near, to repent and to become fishers of men?

Do you believe there is a new kingdom being ushered in? Do you believe there is a new way to live that is different from the way you have been living? Do you believe there is something worth leaving your current way of life for?

What is keeping us from following Jesus the way He asks to be followed? What is keeping us from making the beautiful trade He offers? What are we holding to so tightly, and what can we let go of in order to fully follow after the call of Christ?

And when we become willing to make these trades, we start to see a change in our perspective. It isn’t so much about our reality and how Jesus fits in. It is about Jesus and how our reality is changed because of Him.

Jesus is not interested in being a nice addition to your life. He is not about being a bonus to your already full life.

When Jesus came, He showed up asking people to change direction, asking people to stop heading in the direction they were already moving, in order to make a turn, a 180-degree turn, to go somewhere new, to try something new, to be something new.

LANDING Trade what you know for what you know to be better—the kingdom. Repent. Turn back. Turn away from what is and embrace what can be.

BOTTOM LINE: JESUS IS NOT ASKING TO BE AN ADDITION TO YOUR LIFE; HE IS ASKING TO BE YOUR LIFE.

INTRODUCTION A. When I was in high school we had to take a certain number of foreign language classes in order to graduate. When I started with Spanish 1, it seemed like it would be a breeze. After all, most of the words sounded like English, just with an “o” or an “a” on the end. No problemo. But there was a problem. Spanish 1 was, go figure, a lot easier than Spanish 2 and 3, and eventually 4. And by the time I was in Spanish 4, we were required to speak ONLY Spanish in the classroom and were taught completely in Spanish. I knew I was in trouble. I dreaded going to class. I dreaded being called on. I dreaded every quiz and every test. I even dreaded movie days.

In any other class, the days when we would watch a movie were the best ever—even if you did have to take notes. But in Spanish class, watching the Spanish soap opera Destinos couldn’t even be enjoyed. Because while I knew just from watching the characters that there was something dramatic, awkward, funny or terrifying unfolding on the screen, I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

B. Maybe you know what I am talking about because you too have been in a foreign language class, feeling anxiety and stress at not being able to understand anything. Maybe you know the feeling from something else—you’ve been somewhere and listened to something only to feel like what you are hearing is in a foreign language, even if it isn’t. Maybe your coach has given some directions in the middle of a tense game assuming you knew exactly what he was talking about, but you didn’t have a clue. Or your boss at work has told you to do something and walked away leaving you feeling like you need a translation guide to decode what he wants you to do. If you have ever been in this position you know how stressful and frustrating it can be.

TENSION A. Now here is the question: Do you ever feel that way when you read the Bible? Do you think you have an understanding of what the Bible is all about until you actually open it and start reading it yourself? And then you read these stories, or you read what Jesus said or did, and, while you know you are supposed to understand, you find yourself feeling like you are caught in the middle of a Spanish soap opera?

B. If you have ever felt that way, you are in good company. And I don’t just mean that I have felt that way too. I mean that there were lots of people during Jesus’ own time, people who actually lived the stories from the New Testament firsthand, who were just as confused and baffled when they first heard Jesus talk as you and I can be sometimes. They too listened to the words He said, and instead of walking away going, “That was so inspiring!” they probably said something more along the lines of, “What in the world is He talking about?”

C. The next couple of weeks as we lead up to the story of Easter, we are going to spend some time unpacking the book of Mark, one of the four Gospels in the Bible. This is a gospel we typically don’t spend a lot of time in. It is the shortest of the four Gospels. And oftentimes the other gospels tell the same story Mark tells—but truth be told, the other gospels tell it better, usually going into more detail and offering more information than Mark does. So why Mark? Why are we going to spend time in this gospel? Well, because I think you might be surprised at some of the things we will discover in the book of Mark.

While the book is short, there is a sense when reading it that Mark is so excited with what he has to say that he just can’t wait to get it all out. We may not see this in the English translations we read, but the original Greek is filled with what sound like run-on sentences. He can’t wait to get this story told!

And what is this story exactly? It is the story of Jesus. A story that had unfolded years earlier, but Mark was taking the time to write it down now for the early churches sprouting up around the Roman Empire. And while there is much debate over when exactly he wrote it, most scholars agree that he was writing during a very tense time.

D. At the time this book starts to circulate, Rome and the Jewish people are at odds. There is constant tension; there are constant revolts and outbreaks of violence as various rebel Jewish leaders pop up and work to violently overthrow the harsh, heavy hand of Rome. And Rome, certain of its power and authority, is constantly searching out and effectively getting rid of these rebel leaders—killing them and their followers in hopes of killing the defiant ideas these leaders communicated.

And in the middle of it all are the Christians, followers of Christ or followers of the Way as they referred to themselves. No doubt they were scared, anxious and uncertain about what the unfolding political drama meant for them. And so Mark writes his book. Mark tells the story of God reaching down to humanity. The story of a different kind of leader and a different kind of teacher. And he tells it not just with the early church in mind but with us in mind too, writing in a way that brings us into the story—not simply as spectators but as participants in the drama as it unfolds, inviting us to be a part of the story that changed the world forever.

TRUTH A. The setting in which Mark tells his story is not all that different from the time in which he is writing it. Rome is the superpower at the time. Jewish leaders are growing restless. The Jewish people are growing restless. And it is in this climate that Jesus shows up. The Jews want a leader who will overthrow the power of Rome. The Romans want “peace”—well, peace isn’t the most accurate word—because to get the peace they wanted they were willing to kill every revolutionary who tried to upset the balance. And in the middle of that Jesus says, “I am here. But pay close attention, because things may not appear how you expect them to.”

B. Jesus’ first appearance in Mark isn’t in a stable or manger like you might imagine based on the other gospels and their interpretation of the Christmas story. No, in Mark, Jesus is an adult who comes to hear His cousin, John the Baptist, preach and to be baptized by him. Many see this as the point that launched Jesus’ public ministry in Israel. Following this, His time of teaching and healing began. Mark tells us that following Jesus’ baptism, He went into the wilderness where He was tempted by Satan, and from there went to Galilee where He began to preach what Mark calls the good news of God. He writes this: “The time has come,” he [Jesus] said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:15-17 NIV).

Many of the phrases found in this passage may sound familiar to those of you who have been in church a long time. Words like repent, kingdom of God and fishers of men. These are buzzwords in Christian culture. These were also buzzwords in first-century Jewish culture, but they had a different meaning and weight. As we will see, while these words brought to mind particular images for the Jewish people—as www.whatisorange.org/xp3students ©2011 The reThink Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved THE BEAUTIFUL TEACHING TRADE (1) SCRIPT EXCHANGE PG.3

they do for us—Jesus had a specific idea and slant in mind when He used them. Chances are the Jewish people hearing Jesus speak were surprised when they learned just what Jesus had in mind. In fact, there was surprise, there was wonder, there was even some confusion when it came to understanding what these words meant when Jesus uttered them to a curious and speculative crowd. And even for us today, there is still some confusion as to what Jesus actually meant.

C. Let’s start with a phrase that appears over and over again in the Gospels, a theme that resonates through so much of Scripture, a highlight in the message Jesus was so passionate in communicating. The first thing that begins the public ministry of Jesus is this phrase: the kingdom of God. You and I hear that phrase and tend to think that it means heaven—it means a place far away, far from right now. But that would be taking our understanding of what kingdom means in our world and making it apply to the world of first-century Israel. It didn’t mean a place at all. When Jesus said the kingdom of God was near, He was saying that God was going to make things right. Essentially, Jesus was calling to mind images that were celebrated in the Old Testament—images that encouraged a world, a planet, a state of living and being where God was in charge, where God ruled, where God was King. Listen to what Psalm 99:1 says as it highlights this very idea: The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; He sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake (NIV). When Jesus says the kingdom of God is near, it is another way for Him to say “the Lord reigns” or “there is no king but God.” And as a king, God has in mind a way things ought to be, should be, will be when we live in submission to and reverence for the rule and kingship of Christ.

Another thing that is important to remember when we talk about the kingdom of God in first-century Jewish culture is that the Jewish people had been oppressed by Rome for a very long time. When they thought about the idea that a Messiah would some day come and “save” them, they weren’t thinking about someone saving their souls like we tend to do when we hear a speaker at a summer church camp. They were actually looking for more of a battle hero; they were looking for someone who would lead a physical revolt against Rome and overthrow the social and political power of the time. So when Jesus starts talking about the kingdom of God in parables instead of shouting battle cries, many of the Jewish people are both confused and a bit disappointed. Jesus announces the kingdom of God, not as a new political party or agenda, but as God’s rule on earth becoming real and alive and personal.

D. But in order for there to be meaning and significance to a message celebrating the arrival of the rule and kingship of Christ, the way things were must not have been working very well. The current system was broken. The current world was hurting. The current state of being was far from what a place existing in the kingdom of God should look like. And that explains why the next thing Jesus says as the book of Mark begins is this: “Repent.”

Again, we hear the word repent and think that means confessing our sin—or praying a prayer with lines being fed to us by a speaker or pastor telling us what we should say. We think it means if we do decide to repent, then our eternity is safe and determined. But that wasn’t what Jesus had in mind at all. Jesus told His crowd to repent, not expecting them to confess their sins to Him or pray a prayer. When Jesus said to repent, He meant for people to stop, to make a 180-degree change in the way they were living in order to embrace a new way of living—a way of living that was represented in the phrase kingdom of God. Is the picture starting to become clearer?

Jesus is beginning His public ministry by doing something radical. He wasn’t exactly trying to persuade people or win people over. He was starting by saying there is a new way of life available to you, but if you want to participate in it, if you want to be a part of it, you are going to have to stop what you are doing. www.whatisorange.org/xp3students ©2011 The reThink Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved THE BEAUTIFUL TEACHING TRADE (1) SCRIPT EXCHANGE PG.4

Stop the way you are living. Do a 180-degree turn and start again. This is God’s way. This is God’s kingdom. Are you ready to be a part?”

E. And that call to participate is the interpretation of the last line we just read from verses 15-17 in Mark 1. Jesus sees some brothers fishing and approaches them. We don’t have any indication that Jesus said anything in the way of a greeting, a pleasant comment on the weather or a remark about the local sports team. Nope, what Jesus said cut right to the heart of the matter: “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17 NIV).

This verse doesn’t mean what we may have thought or been taught it meant. An invitation to become fishers of men is not an invitation to go be missionaries and start converting everyone you meet. This verse, in fact, is less about what Jesus is calling the disciples to, being fishers of men, and more about what Jesus is calling them from: their livelihoods, their comfort, their way of being. Jesus offers them something different. “Follow Me,” He says. “Leave this and be a part of something new, something different, something God has created and God has invited you to participate in.”

F. So, as Jesus begins His ministry and as Mark begins his book, it is clear that Jesus has an agenda. Jesus has a plan. Jesus has something in mind for what His remaining time on earth will look like. First, it is going to mean opening people’s eyes to the way things have been and to the way God would have them be. Then it means inviting them to turn their lives around, to begin to live differently, and in doing that, leaving what was familiar and comfortable in order to embrace something new. You might say they were making a trade, a beautiful trade—trading the way things had been for the way things could be—and this wasn’t change for the sake of change. This was a trade out of a way of life that may have been functional, that may have been okay, but that wasn’t God’s best. Jesus is saying, “There is something better. Leave what you know to participate in what you don’t know. But trust Me. This is going to be worth it.”

APPLICATION A. The picture Mark is painting of Jesus is one that was meant to draw the attention of the believers reading his words and the attention of believers two thousand years after it was written—that’s us. Mark is writing as if to say, “You think you have Jesus figured out; you think you know what He was about, but wait. Listen to the story I have for you. Listen to what I am about to tell you. His words may not always make sense, but pay close attention, because there is a message in His teachings and a message in His actions that is deeper and bigger and more significant than you might believe. And you might not understand at face value what He was saying, but I am going to clue you in. I am going to help you see just how radical and beautiful this message really is—for all of us.” Yes, this message matters to us now—to those of you in middle school and high school just trying to pass your classes and survive your home life. And to those of us adults who deal with the daily grind of work and bills and taking care of our families. And this mattered to people living in the conflict and tension existing between Rome and Israel. People at the time of Mark must have been thinking they believed in Jesus, were on board with the message of Jesus and were confident in the purpose of Jesus. But a part of them must have wondered if what Jesus taught and said and did mattered to the world that seemed to be falling apart around them. What was the point for those caught in the chaos of the current events? What did this mean for those whose daily lives seemed to be unraveling? And what does it mean for you—those cryptic words, those hard-to-understand messages? What does it look like to believe the kingdom of God is near, to repent and to become fishers of men?

B. This week, as we have started to tackle what Mark has to say about the beginning of Jesus’ story, about the message He brought for all people and all times, it is appropriate and it is necessary for us to examine where we fit in the story. Had we been standing on the shore when Jesus began His teaching, had we been casting our nets in the water when He called out to us, what would we have done? What would we have thought? Because the truth is we might as well have been there. We might as well imagine that our story is unfolding on the shores of the Jordan River as Jesus begins to talk about a new kingdom, a new way of life, a new story. Jesus is issuing the same kind of invitation to us that He did to those who heard Him the first time.

The question in all of this isn’t just whether or not we believe, but, if we do, what are we going to do about it? If Jesus has, in fact, called us to repent, to change the direction in which we are headed, to involve our hearts, our minds and our souls in order to reflect this new way of living, what do we have to leave behind? What is keeping us from following Jesus the way He asks to be followed? What is keeping us from making the beautiful trade He offers? What are we holding to so tightly, and what can we let go of in order to fully follow after the call of Christ?

C. See, the message of Jesus for most of us has always been one of my life and Jesus, my way of doing things and Jesus, my relationships, my priorities, my desires and dreams and wants, and Jesus. But what Jesus is saying, what Mark is being so careful to make clear as he opens his book, is that Jesus is not asking to be an addition to your life. He is asking to be your life—to be what you turn to after you have turned away from what you previously held so closely. To be a fisher of men is to leave what you were doing before for something better.

D. So what is it for you? Maybe you have been holding tightly to the dream of a relationship with this guy that has finally become a reality—life is exactly how you imagined it would be. And Jesus is just a nice addition to the near-perfect life you have. But what if following Jesus means giving up this relationship, because deep down you know this guy isn’t the best news—he isn’t the nicest guy and actually spends more time trying to get you to do things physically you aren’t sure you are comfortable with than just talking to you. Giving this relationship up may hurt for a little while, but you are trading in the dream for something else, for following Jesus into a new way of life that calls for something different.

Maybe you have been holding tightly to your pride. You are an all-star athlete. And you know it. The whole school knows it. In fact, the whole school knows you—knows your name, knows your stats, even kind of parts the way to make room for you in the hallway as you walk by. This is what you are known for. But what if following Jesus means making a trade—trading in your pride, your status as the school’s best athlete, to be known as something different—something better—someone who genuinely and fully follows Christ?

For some of you the trade is something different. You aren’t that great at sports—or academics for that matter. You aren’t dating anyone. You have kind of spent your life on the outside—it is where you feel the most comfortable, where you feel like you fit the most. This is just your deal—you don’t fit where most people do, so you kind of thrive on being an outsider, and on feeling pretty miserable in the process. But www.whatisorange.org/xp3students ©2011 The reThink Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved THE BEAUTIFUL TEACHING TRADE (1) SCRIPT EXCHANGE PG.6

what if Jesus is asking you to trade that in? What if He is asking you to trade in your self-pity, your loneliness, your martyr mentality for something else—for a life of selflessness following Him, the joy of belonging with Him and to Him?

E. And when we become willing to make these trades, we start to see a change in our perspective. It isn’t so much about our reality and how Jesus fits in. It is about Jesus and how our reality is changed because of Him. This gives us hope. This gave the believers in the first century hope. They weren’t getting a Jesus that had to be amped up to fit into their view of what life in the kingdom of God should be. They were getting Jesus as their life. They were making the beautiful trade, and while that didn’t mean that life got automatically easier or less complicated—as a matter of fact, it probably did the opposite—it did mean that life became more focused and more full of hope and love. And it does for us as well!

No, Jesus is not interested in being a nice addition to your life. He is not about being a bonus to your already full life. When Jesus came, He showed up asking people to change direction, asking people to stop heading in the direction they were already moving, in order to make a turn, a 180-degree turn, to go somewhere new, to try something new, to be something new.

F. So what is it for you? What needs to go in order for you to follow the dream Jesus has for your life, to follow a kingdom way of life? What needs to be traded in for something better? What is keeping you from a wholehearted commitment to the kingdom of God?

LANDING A. Whatever it is, as good as it may be, as great as you consider it, as wonderful as you see it, it is worth the trade for something better. Trade what you know for what you know to be better—the kingdom. Repent. Turn back. Turn away from what is and embrace what can be. Mark is writing so that you and I can get to the heart of the message Jesus has for us—a message of something new that’s worth trading our lives in for the result of what could be.

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